Little Miracle
by Funkywatermelon
Summary: Manny gets to spend some alone quality time with his new little girl, what fun!


Hey all! Funkywatermelon here! My sis is outa town for a while so I am stuck with NOTHING to do!!!! So, I decided to celebrate the arrival of the newest Sub Zero Hero Peaches by writing a story including her, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Ice Age characters, however, I can control what they do in my stories… bwa ha ha ha ha!!!

Manny smiled and wiped a few beads of sweat off of his forehead.

"Perfect." He said smiling at his best friend Diego who was standing right next to him. It was a week after coming back up from the dinosaur area and Manny had opted to finish up the playground he had been building for his child. He had originally planned for it to be complete before it's birth but, since his daughter Peaches was already about a week old, Manny would be happy if it was finished before her first birthday. Luckily, his pal Diego had offered to help him out.

"Should be finished in another week or so." Diego said proudly, he actually enjoyed helping his friend out, nothing made someone feel more masculine than building, even if what you were building was a playground for a baby girl. "You feel bad about banning Sid from helping?" he asked.

"Nah." Manny replied, putting another snowball on a nearby tree branch. "Did you see the wreckage he caused last time? I told him that he would do me more help by staying at the cave and helping Ellie keep an eye on her."

"Ellie knows to keep an eye on him though, right?" Diego asked.

"Of course." Manny grinned "She's in on almost all of my sneaky plans." The two laughed as they exited the playground.

"What's that for?" Diego asked, referring to the small gemstone that Manny had clutched in his trunk.

"It's for Peaches." Manny replied as he closed the gate to the playground "I figured that she might find it pretty."

"She is going to be so spoiled." Diego laughed. It was true, Peaches was incredibly spoiled by everyone in the herd, With two doting parents and four uncles (two of which were determined to teach her every possum thing they knew) a day hadn't passed yet where she wouldn't get a new toy. But that wasn't enough for the tyke, not only did she receive new toys every day, a minute wouldn't pass without someone paying all their attention to her, even when it was nighttime or naptime, she was cuddled up with someone in the herd. It wasn't really the herd's fault though, Peaches had the uncanny ability to convince her family that she deserved anything and everything she received, simply put, Peaches was adorable, and she knew it.

"Ehh, it's more of a decoration than a toy." Manny commented as he and Diego began to walk back home.

"Sure… whatever you say buddy." Diego smirked. If anyone was guilty of spoiling the newest member of their herd it was her father. Not only was Manny in the process of making a playground specifically for the week old girl which included 3 slides, a "Crystal palace" (a small ice cave), her newly updated mobile (custom made by her father), 10 snow sculptures, 6 leaf beds and 2 swings. (Ellie had convinced him to take out the seesaw "How is she going to play on that?" she had asked "if it's going to only be her?") But he also spent most of his time when he was not working on the playground with his new daughter, be it walking around showing her all kinds of new things or simply letting her crawl all over him while chatting with the rest of his friends.

"Hey Manny, Hey Diego." A slurring voice said from behind.

"Oh hey Sid." Both Manny and Diego said in unison.

"You guys won't believe what happened today!" Sid explained excitedly.

"What happened Sid?" Diego asked, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I was flirting with this sloth girl right? And get this, she didn't like me!" Sid declared surprisedly, as if it was a huge shock. Manny and Diego both chuckled.

"Why am I not surprised Sid." Manny said as he walked into the clearing where their family lived. Manny's smile grew bigger when he heard a high pitched squeak and saw a small blur run out of the cave and up to him. "Hey there Peaches." Manny said grinning to his week old daughter who had wrapped her trunk around his front leg and was rubbing her head against it.

"Ah!" was Peaches' only response. Manny grinned.

"So, was she good today?" Manny asked Ellie as she walked out of the cave herself, having given herself the job of keeping an eye on Peaches a majority of the day, Manny had thought that she would be exhausted, but he was wrong, even though their daughter was active, Ellie's energy was plenty big enough to keep up with her baby girl.

"She was fine." Ellie said, a happy twinkle in her eyes as she watched Peaches try to get Diego to play "where's the baby" with her.

"Any problems or anything?" Manny asked, he wanted to make sure everything was fine.

"It's fine!" Ellie said laughing "Manny, she's perfect. The only times she cried today were when she had to go to the bathroom, when she was hungry and when anyone left the cave."

"Yeah, yeah!" Crash and Eddie said running up.

"Hey Ellie!" Crash said excitedly "There's a party going on in the mini sloths area… can we go?"

"YOU can go." Ellie said to them "I think that I would like to stay here with the baby if that's ok."

"Fine, if you wanna miss out on all the fun!" Eddie said as he and his brother ran toward the clearing.

"Peaches IS fun!" Ellie called back teasingly "She's not gonna be at the party y'know!"

"We'll bring her back something then!" the boys called back as they disappeared into the forest. Manny quickly picked up his crying daughter when she noticed that two of her uncles were gone. After comforting her, he sat down on the ground and let her crawl around on his back.

"I'm gonna head over there too." Sid said as he grabbed a few rocks and sticks "Can't have a party without the fire king y'know!"

"Go ahead." Manny said as Ellie comforted Peaches when she realized that another one of her uncles was going out for the night. After Diego left (he decided to go for an evening hunt) it was just the three mammoths left alone. Well, the two adult mammoths and one hopelessly crying infant one to be exact. After Ellie had tried for five minutes without success to comfort her crying daughter, Manny came up with an idea. "Hey Peaches, daddy's got something for you!" He said excitedly, hoping to get his little girls attention, Peaches immediately stopped crying and looked at him with her big pea-green eyes. Manny carefully held out the beautiful green crystal he had found and gave it to his daughter. Peaches was entranced, she squealed, grabbed it immediately and ran into a corner of the cave, set it on the ground and lay down in front of it, not taking her eyes off it, giggling the entire time.

"Manny, it's beautiful!" Ellie said happily.

"Yeah well, I thought she might like it… oh, and I see you found the flowers." Manny said blushing a bit, no matter how far in their relationship they got, Manny still felt a bit awkward being romantic around Ellie, he was constantly worried that he would mess something up.

"Oh, I sure did!" Ellie said gesturing towards the large bouquet of wildflowers she had discovered when she woke up that morning. "That was so sweet of you, but… why did I get them?" Manny grinned.

"It's sort of a 'good job' thing, y'know? Just… saying, good job with Peaches. You're doing such a wonderful job with her… I don't think I've ever seen a better mom." He said, once again blushing, Ellie beamed at him.

"Aww! You are just too sweet!" She smiled as she gave her husband an affectionate trunk lock and nuzzle. "Isn't he a good guy Peaches?" But Peaches was too busy making funny faces in her gem and laughing at the reflections to pay attention to her mother.

"You should go with your brothers." Manny told his wife kindly "You haven't been able to hang out with them for a while."

"B-But the baby." Ellie commented.

"I'll watch her." Manny said "I don't think I've had any alone time with her since she arrived. It'll be fine, go ahead, Peaches will be perfectly safe."

"All right." Ellie said uncertainly "I trust you." She then walked out of the cave, causing Peaches to squeal loudly and run towards her mother. Luckily Manny was able to catch the tot before she reached the exit.

"Not tonight sweetheart." He told her "We're going to have some daddy daughter time, ok?" Peaches looked at her dad confusedly, then started to cry.

"Oh, it's ok, it's ok, see… we're going to have fun, daddy's going to be funny… see?" Manny made silly faces in hopes of cheering up his baby. To his relief the sound of jovial giggling entered his ears as soon as he had made the first face. He happily picked up his giggling girl and gave her a hug with his trunk. "You are a nut, aren't you?" Peaches giggled as she played with her father's hair, then hugged her father's trunk with hers. Tears welled up in Manny's eyes. It had taken a long time for Ellie to convince him that they should have children. After losing his son to human hunters he was scared to get himself attached to another child. Thankfully he realized that his circumstances were different now, and had changed his mind. Even so, it had been a LONG time since he had felt the touch of a young child hugging him like this.

"I'm always going to be there to protect you, ok?" he said softly to his little girl, who looked at him with a confused look in her face, then grinned as she reached up with her stubby trunk to try and tickle her father. Manny snickered "Peaches!" He said laughing "Cut it out!" He put his laughing daughter on her soft mossy bed and watched her as she stood there, giggling. "You're a real goofball, aren't you?" he asked happily as he turned around to straighten up the Possums' area of the cave. A minute hadn't passed when he heard soft footsteps coming across the cage and felt a small nudge on his back leg. He turned around to see Peaches staring up at him with her trunk extended up, an invitation for him to pick her up. He smiled and gently picked her up. After he picked her up she began to suck on her front foot, then took it out of her mouth and examined the small trail of drool that hung between her mouth and her foot. She grinned up at her dad who gave her a smile.

"Sorry to cut in on your quality time." Diego said as he walked into the cave "but my hunt was done and well, I don't do so well at parties."

"Not a big deal." Manny said grinning. Peaches, upon seeing her uncle Diego come back, began to wriggle around in her daddy's trunk. Manny put her down on the ground and she immediately ran up to her uncle.

"Hey there squirt." Diego said smirking as he put one of his paws in front of his eyes and lifted it away, causing Peaches to squeal and laugh with pure glee. "How're your worries now?" Diego asked. All throughout Ellie's pregnancy, Manny had been frantic about her and the baby's safety, but now that Peaches had arrived and was perfectly healthy, he couldn't be happier.

"I'm still protective, but I don't worry too much." Manny said, tickling his baby girl who after greeting her uncle had run back to her father, and was now giggling as she was being tickled.

"Yeah." Diego commented "It's too bad Buck couldn't join us though, I'm sure he'd be able to tell her some great bedtime stories."

"Are you kidding!" Manny said as Peaches began to pick up his trunk and drop it repeatedly, still giggling of course. "I'm sure his stories would be too scary for Peaches, let alone untrue, I mean, using a shell to turn a t-rex into a t-rachel without getting killed??? Seriously, either that weasel's a compulsive liar…"

"Or he's immortal." Diego finished.

"Exactly, and I personally would feel uncomfortable with a zombie weasel hanging out with my daughter!" Manny commented as the infant now was attempting to crawl up his face, thus making the conversation a hard one to keep going.

"He's not a zombie!" Diego laughed "If anything he's just really good with survival skills."

"I know, I know!" Manny said frustratedly, putting his adventuresome daughter back on the ground in front of him earning a 'puppy dog face' from her. "Listen." Manny said "I have no thoughts against Buck staying with us, but, he chose to stay down there, nothing we can really do about it except see if perhaps he'll join us somewhere in the future." Peaches squealed as she tried to reach a string of beads that her uncles Crash and Eddie had made for her that Manny was holding up high.

Manny put down the beads and gently picked up his daughter a tossed her an inch up into the air, and caught her, causing her to squeal with delight. "All right." He said smiling "I think it's time for someone to take a B-A-T-H." He then carried Peaches over to a rear room in their cave where there was a small in-cave pond.

Upon seeing the water Peaches squealed excitedly, the tot LOVED water, and would go to great lengths to take as long as a bath as possible. As soon as Manny put her in the pool, she began splashing with her front feet, Causing Manny to have a hard time with cleaning his little girl. He was only glad that she didn't know how to squirt with her trunk yet. He knew that when that day came, it would become all but impossible to get her clean. After a while, she was finally clean and Manny was able to pick up a nearby large leaf and wrap her up in it. Peaches happily snuggled up close to him as he dried her off. When Manny took her back out into the main cave she jumped out of his grasp and ran over to her powdered leaves and began scribbling on the walls of the cave. This of course, meant she was dirty all over again. Manny looked at his daughter with his mouth hanging open. Diego chuckled.

After she was finished painting, Peaches plopped on the ground and yawned. Manny grinned and picked her up, and pulled her right up next to him. Peaches was asleep within seconds. After a while Ellie, Sid, and the possum twins came walking in.

"Hey!" Ellie whispered happily as she walked up to Manny and Peaches. "How was she?"

"Perfect." Manny replied "no problems at all." Ellie smiled softly at her daughter as she gently stroked her fur with her trunk. Peaches made soft baby noises in her sleep, but other than that, had no reaction to her mother's return. After everyone else had gone to sleep Ellie snuggled up next to Manny and intertwined her trunk with his.

"She's a blast, isn't she?" Ellie asked.

"She sure is." Manny replied "Is she what you wanted? I mean… is she what you were expecting in a baby?"

"No." Ellie replied "She's ten times better… Exactly what our herd needed." Manny grinned at her.

"Y'know, I was hesitant before to have another child, but, now that we have Peaches… I can't imagine life without her. You did good." He said kindly, brushing a strand of his daughter's wild hair out of her eyes.

"We did good." Ellie corrected her mate. Manny grinned.

"Yeah, we did good."

Don't you just LOVE Peaches!?!?! She's the sweetest little thing ever!

I know this story was a bit hectic but Peaches is a bit of a hectic character, I can see her CONSTANTLY doing something, but never the same thing twice in one afternoon. I know this story may suck but oh well… I liked it… I just wrote it to make a crockpot of cute things for Peaches to do… plus I just wanted to add on another story with her in there.

OH, and HAPPY 45TH B-DAY To the man who gives us the loveable Sid the Sloth JOHN LEGUIZAMO!!! If you're reading this Mr. Leguizamo, consider this my b-day present to you!

R&R!


End file.
